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The Best Punk of 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of Difficult Fun! Each month, SPIN will spotlight the best punk on the planet and discuss it here, with the ambition of challenging preconceived notions of what the four-letter word actually means and, ideally, entertaining readers in the process. Purists, piss off! Everyone else, enjoy. There was hope at the beginning of 2021, and then there was a slap in the face. We have languished; we have endured an ever-mutating and unforgiving plague; we have survived insurrections from domestic terrorists; the Gulf of Mexico caught on fire. I’d say humanity has proven resilient over the course of the last 12 months, but that’s a word utilized to cast meaning on the meaningless, to make suffering some patriotic endeavor. You could call Sex Pistols’ “No Future” a revelan...

Difficult Fun: September 2021’s Best Punk

Welcome to the latest edition of Difficult Fun! Each month, SPIN will spotlight the best punk on the planet and discuss it here, with the ambition of challenging preconceived notions of what the four-letter word actually means and, ideally, entertaining readers in the process. Purists, piss off! Everyone else, enjoy. This should be a space for Turnstile worship. Seriously. (Read that here, written by the ineffable Zoe Camp three years ago. SPIN was early to the melodic hardcore band’s greatness.) This month’s column should open with a commendatory review of their latest album, Glow On, and a thoughtful meditation on how some positive punks found funk and dance rhythms in their breakdowns and saved a genre in repose. Those arguments exist elsewhere. If anything, I’m mostly excited that Turn...